Mom Returns Home to Find Babysitter Tattooed Her Kids

One mom’s bizarre reaction to her children getting tattooed by their babysitter has landed her and her boyfriend in jail, and it’s probably not why you think.

According to the Roanoke Times, Melissa Delp, a 32-year-old mother in Virginia, left her two girls, both under age 13, in the care of a family friend, 20-year-old Alexander Edwards. Delp went out with her boyfriend, Daniel Janney. When the couple returned home, they found out that Edwards had tattooed both of her daughters, without their consent.

As horrifying as this act of abuse was, it’s what happened next that’s really chilling. When the couple discovered what Edwards did, instead of reporting him immediately to the police, they attempted to remove the tattoos from the girls themselves, in order to cover up the crime. An officer from the sheriff's department said, “There was an effort to cover these tattoos up. It didn’t help the situation any. It added more scarring."

Parental consent is needed for tattooing anyone under 18 in the state of Virginia. Edwards has been charged with malicious wounding, child abduction, and assault. Delp and Janney were arrested and charged with felony child abuse. Hopefully the two girls are now in safe hands.

One bright spot to come of all of this: after hearing about the incident, a good samaritan who runs a tattoo removal business nearby has offered to remove the girls’ ink, free of charge.